Max Payne 3 versus Tessellation, FXAA and MSAA

Techgage recently took a look at the effect enabling tesselation and antialiasing has on the visual quality of Max Payne 3. Visually the Phong Tesselation seems to only have an effect on close visuals of faces, as well as adding some volume to clothing. FXAA and 4xMSAA had more effect, with FXAA not only offering smoother visuals but also having almost no effect whatsoever on frame rates. They also took a look at SSAO and HDAO but for that you'd need to download their large screenshot to be able to tell them apart and ended by delving into the performance. Check it out here.

"With Max Payne 3 reviewed, how about we take a look at the game from a technical perspective? Wondering what the game brings to the tessellation table? How FXAA compares to MSAA? Whether HDAO is really worth the performance hit? We tackle all these questions and more, so read on."

Agreed. I'm a graphics whore (at the moment, I'm running three GTX 670 4GB cards) and the demo looks the same to me. Then again, that's essentially the point of the original article. That and the benefit of FXAA.

I am with Ray and Nirvi, I can't see too much of a difference. Perhaps it is a bit more clean looking as Cyow states, but I could attribute the slight colors differences to a newer jackets (Tess off) and a jacket that has been worn more (Tess on) which might be a result of the sun fading the color a bit. There are color and shading differences, but I don't think this is a big WOW factor.